The South African Football Association (Safa), in conjunctiwith the 2010 Fifa World Cup Legacy Trust, has launched the most significant development programme in the history of South African football – the Safa Under 13 and Under 15 Boys and Girls League.
The move marks the beginning of the implementation of a critical component of the Safa Technical Master Plan - the building of a rich and robust talent identification and development pipeline.
This U-13 and U-15 League programme was made possible through the funding provided by the 2010 Fifa World Cup Legacy Trust.
The leagues will kick off in all of the Association’s 311 Local Football Associations (LFA) in May this year. Several coordinators, who are currently being trained, will be responsible for the roll out of the programme in their respective LFAs.
Coaches and talent scouts will select LFA teams which will participate in regional competitions followed by Provincial competitions in September 2013.
Provincial U-13 and U-15 teams will participate in National Competitions in December 2013. In the process, 1000 boys and 1000 girls who show potential will be identified and put through high performance tests conducted by our high performance universities.
The President of Safa, Kirsten Nematandani said the launch of this programme was historic in the long term successes of our national teams.
“This is the first phase in the implementation of our Technical Master Plan which is intended to enable us to reach our goal in the next decade of being consistently in the Top 3 in Africa and Top 20 in the World,” said Nematandani.
“A decade is both a long time and a very short time as well. The Fifa World Cup tournament to be held in Qatar in 2022 is just under 10 years away, and if our plan is to find success, it must be seen there if not before.”
Dr Danny Jordaan, the Chairperson of the 2010 Fifa World Cup Legacy Trust, stated that this was the project in which the Trust invested the most funds during the first round of allocations.
“The Board of Trustees was excited to note that Safa prioritised the U-13 and U-15 leagues for girls and boys as a key element of the Technical Master Plan that was unveiled a few weeks ago. The Board was unanimous in their view that this focus will provide a solid foundation for meaningful development and transformation of the game, thus the lion share of the distribution of funds in this first allocation was directed to this initiative,” said Dr Jordaan.
“The Board of Trustees wanted to see a programme that will make an impact on the development of football and that will see the national teams improve their standing on the continent and in the world in the next 10 years. This is therefore the start of a tough, but exciting journey for South African football but the Trust will be there to support Safa every step of the way.”